Fastjet set to fly 500,000 passengers

LOW-cost airline Fastjet says it is on course to fly almost 500 000 passengers on its Zimbabwean routes this year.

Hein Kaiser, the group's spokesperson, said the regional airline carries around 40 000 guests on its Zimbabwean routes every month, and this translates to about 480 000 by year-end.

"Movement of people and goods between economic and tourism hubs contributes substantially to growth, opportunity and connecting friends and family. We remain committed to be a catalyst to Zimbabwe's sustained growth today, tomorrow and into the future," he said.

"We believe in constant and never-ending improvement, and with the introduction of the first bag and a light snack included on most of our routes, our on-time performance and improved customer experience, fastjet continues to show our commitment to our guests."

Fastjet has so far carried 3,5 million passengers on the Zimbabwean routes since 2015, riding on aggressive network expansion into Bulawayo, Victoria Falls, Johannesburg and Dar es Salaam, from its Harare hub.

This places it in line to achieve its ambition to dominate the southern African country's aviation industry, a stronghold of struggling State-run carrier, Air Zimbabwe (AirZim), which projects to fly 805 434 passengers on its regional routes this year, after connecting 283 471 in 2017.

Zimbabwe is entering its high tourism season in the coming months, which could see the numbers rise as demand surges.

Kaiser said underlining the growth was its consistently high on time performance across southern Africa, the best among its regional peers.

In August the carrier achieved a 90 percent average network on time performance, the sixth month this year where fastjet has achieved the 90 percent mark, according to Kaiser.

He said fastjet planned to introduce initiatives on a sustained basis to continue improving its service levels.

A regional operation, fastjet's route network includes Tanzanian domestic routes from its Dar es Salaam base to Kilimanjaro, Mbeya, and Mwanza, and international routes from Tanzania to Lusaka in Zambia and Harare.

Fastjet began branded domestic flights in Mozambique operated by Solenta Aviation Mozambique between Maputo and Beira, Nampula and Tete in November last year.

In Zimbabwe, fastjet's operations received a major boost in July, with the launch of daily frequencies into Bulawayo from Harare.

This comes as the airline, which was recently reported to be on the verge of collapse, raised $10 million from investors in July.

The new frequencies were historic as government had until then protected AirZim's monopoly on the route.

An additional aircraft was expected to be deployed in Zimbabwe as the airline responded to increased demand after its route network expansion.

The Pan African low-cost carrier was also the first airline to break AirZim's monopoly on the Harare-Victoria Falls route about two years ago, where it now operates daily frequencies. - fingaz